About half a generation ago, a plague took most of the people of the world. San Francisco is filled with dreams, memories, and magic. When a military force want to take over the city; two teenagers, Art, Magic, and the soul of the city are the defense.
A magical book , that lures you into thinking just a little bit, while be thoroughly entertained. Reserve a copy here.
Pat Murphy is a writer for the Exploratorium ; here is her web page.
Another local mystery writer from the Bay Area, Dianne Day! In this case, historical mysteries. Fremont Jones is a young feminist from Boston. She escape the confines of Boston Society and lands in San Francisco. The four books that take place in and around the bay area occur around the time of the great earthquake. So they are historically interesting as well as intriguing mysteries.
Request books by Dianne Day here.
There are lots of writers in the bay area. There is no way to know them all, so I love this theme for our Adult summer reading game . Today I want to introduce Deborah Grabien, mostly for her current mystery series , The Kincaid Chronicles. This series follows the adventures of a well established, San Francisco, rock and roll band as they age into their fifties. While the characters deal with murders, secrets revealed,and aging rock-n-roll bodies, the reader is treated to full backstage access pass. Here is the YouTube trailer for the first book, Rock and Roll Never Forgets:
Sadly, the second book, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, doesn’t come out until September. But don’t despair– there is another great series by Ms. Grabien, The Haunted Ballard Series.
In The Haunted Ballard Series we are treated to a series of ghost stories based on traditional English ballads. A real kick and some of them are scary! And even though these books take place in England, the music might be familiar to you. These ballads were song a lot during the big folk revival scene of the 1960s by band such as Fairport Convention.
Music has been part of my vision of San Francisco and the bay area for a long time. Add a good story –and you find the magic. Here are some of Ms. Grabien’s books in the Alameda County Library.
America’s only Nobel Prize winning playwright, Eugene O’Neill, chose to live in Northern California at the climax of his writing career. Isolated from the world and within the walls of his home, O’Neill wrote his final and most memorable plays; The Iceman Cometh, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. While he was at Tao House, O’Neill refused requests to produce the plays he wrote there. He wanted to complete five of the cycle lays first, and he did not want the others staged until the war was over. During his years there he turned his back on the “show shop,” his jaundiced term for the theatre world, giving himself to “soul-grinding” work on the cycle and transforming his past into the autobiographical plays that made him one of America’s most important playwrights.
Saved from destruction, today visitors can tour the house and grounds of Eugene O’Neill State Historic Park by making reservations for the free docent led tour. On the day of your visit, a van shuttles you into the hills above Danville. Although it’s an urban area now, the Las Trampas Regional Wilderness west of Tao House and Mt. Diablo to the east allow visitors to easily imagine the landscape of the late 1930s and early 1940s. The restored house also reflects those years.
The Eugene O’Neill Foundation and National Park Service has a unique partnership aimed at preserving and promoting O’Neill’s home and his works. Eugene O’Neill’s Tao House is operated by the National Park Service. Public visitation by advance reservation, Wednesdays through Sundays, with guided tours at 10:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. (allow 2 hours).Office hours are Wednesday-Sunday 9 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Closed Mondays, Tuesdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Starting June 6 through August 29, 2009, NO RESERVATION SATURDAYS are offered to the site. A park van will be waiting at the Museum of the San Ramon Valley (205 Railroad Ave.) at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to bring visitors up and down from the O’Neill home. No reservations are needed on these Saturdays this summer. If you are planning to bring a large group, please contact the park at (925) 838-0249.
A visit to Tao House stays with you. You leave with a sense of how Eugene O’Neill’s life struggles inspired plays that changed the history of American theatre and touch the souls of playgoers.
“We have a beautiful site in the hills of the San Ramon Valley with one of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen. This is the final home and harbor for me. I love California. Moreover, the climate is one I know I can work and keep healthy in.” — Eugene O’Neill (from a letter written to Barrett H. Clark on September 14, 1937)
Eugene O’Neill and his third wife, Carlotta, moved into Tao House (from the Taoist philosophy meaning “the right way of life”) in 1937. The design of Tao House, constructed of white adobe-like bricks with a black glazed tile roof, was left to Carlotta. Her choice of a Chinese motif reflected her interest in Chinese art and Eugene’s interest in Eastern philosophy. The house Eugene called his “final harbor” was at once a home, a working place and a fortress, built high on the hill, where few visitors were welcomed. Carlotta protected Eugene from the outside world, and he was able to write his most famous plays isolated behind three doors that closed off his study from the rest of the house.
In 1944, with Eugene’s failing health and having lost most of their help, including Herbert Freeman, to the war effort, the O’Neills were forced to sell Tao House. They stayed in San Francisco for awhile, but eventually returned east, settling in Boston. Eugene O’Neill never wrote another play after leaving Tao House. He died in Boston on November 27, 1953.
“We stayed at Tao House for six whole years, longer than we lived anywhere else. Of course, there were many hardships, but it was a beautiful place and I hated to leave.” — Carlotta O’Neill
“What I am after is to get an audience to leave the theater with an exultant feeling from seeing somebody on the stage facing life, fighting against the eternal odds, not conquering, but perhaps inevitably being conquered. The individual life is made significant just by the struggle.” — Eugene O’Neill
Be sure to include O’Neill’s plays as part of your reading for Books Around the Bay game. You will find his plays in the call number 812.54 O’NEILL or on the adult summer reading game display at your local branch.
It is a celebration of Bay Area authors , experiences, and life .These works make Bay Area a unique place where authors with the power of pen bring beauty, joy, and liberation. The choices are infinite…
“I Loved You So Much
I loved you
So much
That when
You left
It took
A lot
To keep me
Alive.”
ABSOLUTE TRUST in the GOODNESS of the EARTH
The new poems by ALICE WALKER
From Alice Walker’s poetry to memoir of Frances Mayes are all works: that are considered as literally works around the Bay.
In UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN, France Mayes in a poetic language describes her decision leaving San Francisco and finding a different world in Tuscan, Italy.“I’ve learned here that simplicity is liberating. Simca’s philosophy applies totally to this kitchen, where we no longer measure, but just cook. As all cooks know, ingredients of the moment are the best guides. Much of what we do is too simple to be called a recipe-it’s just the way to do it.”
Books around the Bay seems to be a simple theme for the summer reading game at the library .The theme is wide open to all different titles that were created here or the writers lived here part or all of her career , or the story starts ,ends, or take place in San Francisco. Two above titles are sample of the list. Both are non fiction …however if you like to read fiction, just search the catalog for San Francisco (calif.) fiction! Or stop by the information desk so we can share the other Bay Area authors that wrote fiction about other places in the world. The example for that would Isabel Allende, and Khaled Hosseini. Just join the game!
Summer is upon us and (hopefully!) we will soon have plenty of sunshine nudging us to slow down some of our crazy, hectic habits and bask in a little warm weather, blue skies, blossoming vegetable gardens and maybe even take time to pick up a good book. From Oprah to NPR the question is, what will you be reading this summer?
For years, the Library has offered a summer reading game for children as a central part of fostering a passion and love for reading beyond the 
classroom, while keeping those reading skills polished. But why can’t adults “play” too? Indeed the concept of “adult” and “play” seem almost like an oxymoron when stacked up against an 80 hour work week and a family to tend. There’s always plenty of work to do, it seems, but not plenty of “play” to do.
And summer is the quintessential play time….time for vacations and beach reads, after all. And though reading is rather solitary by nature the sharing of it is not. So the Library, for the past 3 years, has offered a summer reading program for adults. The adult reading game in
vites readers to connect with each other by offering a theme, and makes it fun, by offering prizes.
This year’s theme is Books Around the Bay. Simply read anything that has to do with the Bay Area, fill out an entry form and drop it in the entry box at your local branch library. Each week, one entry will be randomly selected for a prize. Read ANYTHING as long as it either takes place in the Bay Area or is by a Bay Area author. We’re talking mystery, fiction, nonfiction, memoir, poetry, cooking, travel and anything else you can come up with. The reading game committee has created a few booklists to help get you started; take a look at them posted here or you can pick one up at your local branch library. We invite you to share your favorites as well as view what other readers have to say. And every branch will have a display with that entry box prominently available. We also have a few links to author websites and literary news of the Bay Area; again, feel free to post your own suggestions.
Prizes have been locally purchased with funds from the various Friends of the Library organizations with assistance from the Alameda County Library Fou
ndation. Most libraries opt for gift cards for the weekly drawing and a grand prize at the end of the program.
Books Around the Bay starts June 15 and continues until August 15. Happy reading!
